


An Information Broker's Advice

by atenaglory



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 05:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7210025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atenaglory/pseuds/atenaglory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrus and Liara have a chat about Commander Shepard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Information Broker's Advice

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Little Bit Brave](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4074187) by [promisespromises](https://archiveofourown.org/users/promisespromises/pseuds/promisespromises). 



> Just a little bit of simple shakarian, which is what I live for. After I read "A Little Bit Brave" by promisespromises I wanted to hear Liara talk about her crush on Shepard... but since I love shakarian it came out this way.
> 
> (Also on tumblr: http://atenaglory.tumblr.com/post/146004287309)

On their first trip to Illium, Shepard and the crew had gone to see Liara. She’d happened to take Garrus and Grunt, and the former was as glad to see Liara as Shepard was. After asking about the assassin and the justicar, Shepard indulged her curiosity, asking about a familiar face she’d seen.

“By the way, was that Gianna Parasini downstairs?”

“Yes,” Liara responded. “I’m surprised you remember her.”

“I wasn’t entirely sure. What’s she doing on Illium?”

“I believe she is trying to arrest a smuggler. Perhaps she could use your help.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll check that out,” Shepard said, a little absently. “I always liked Gianna. And if memory serves, she owes me a drink. I probably won’t need a lot of backup, so you can stay and catch up if you’d like, Garrus.”

“Ah, sure,” Garrus said quietly. “Thanks, Shepard. You two go on ahead, then.”

Shepard and Grunt headed downstairs, Grunt grumbling about his desire to “bash some heads in”. Garrus watched them disappear, and the turned to Liara.

“Have a seat,” she gestured to a couple of couches arranged around a coffee table. Then, smirking, “Archangel.”

“I’d expect no less from an up and coming information broker who just threatened to _flay someone alive_. Is that an average day for you?”

Liara smiled again, although this time there was a hint of bitterness.

“It looks like we both had some trouble after Shepard…” she trailed off.

“Hah, you could say that,” Garrus said, an edge in his voice.

“Garrus… are you alright?” She glanced at the bandaged side of his face before resuming eye contact.

“I’ll be honest, Liara. If Shepard hadn’t shown up when she did, I’d have a lot more to worry about than… what kinds of girls are into scars.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, Garrus,” Liara said quietly. After a pause, she looked up at him and said, “So… Is it possible that you hope that the commander is the kind of girl who is ‘into scars’?”

“Well she’s got a few of her own, so…. Ah, I mean—that’s not what I—“

“It’s alright, Garrus. You don’t get to where I am without learning to read subtle signs from people. I thought there might have been a little too much interest on your part when she mentioned her fondness of Gianna Parasini. A little bit of disappointment at the mention of drinks.”

Garrus looked away, shifting uncomfortably.

“It’s alright, Garrus,” she repeated reassuringly. “You might remember that I was also quite taken with the commander during our days on the SR-1.”

Garrus laughed, “Yeah you didn’t exactly have to be a skilled information broker to figure that one out.”

“Seeing her on and off the battlefield, talking to her up close… She is quite something. Perhaps it is my youth, but I felt that I had never met anyone like her when we were aboard the Normandy together.”

“I felt that way, too, but… Back on the SR-1, all I could think about was learning as much from her as possible. I had endless respect for her, but I never thought of her as anything outside of Commander Shepard, mentor and Spectre. But now…”

“Now you have a room that she visits you in, as opposed to an open space in the Cargo Bay where anyone can hear your conversations,” Liara said with more slyness in her voice than Garrus had ever heard.

“How do you know that?”

“Perhaps you should bring up romance or a past relationship and see how she reacts. I imagine you two have gotten much closer since your reunion. You could bring it up naturally in a casual conversation, yes?”

“I get the feeling that less _imagining_ and more _spying_ is involved here, but yeah, we’re… definitely closer that we were before. We’re friends, not just teammates or commander and subordinate. We joke around with each other. We care about each other.”

“I’m sure the fact that you were the only person from her past to rejoin her without even questioning her was very important. And it is not spying. I do my job very well.”

“You think so?”

“That it isn’t spying?”

“No—what? That she’s happy I joined her crew on the SR-2.”

“Yes, Garrus.”

A pause.

“She’s human,” Garrus sighed.

“And you’re Turian, yet you still respected and trusted her when we were trying to take down Saren. You would still follow her lead no matter what. Didn’t she even help you resolve the situation with one Sidons?”

Garrus remained silent, looking at the ground. Setting aside how unnervingly informed Liara was, it was true that Shepard had saved him again when she stepped into his crosshairs. The least he could do was continue following her lead. The least he could do was be there when she needed him. He’d seen how she felt when Kaidan had reacted to her presence on Horizon. He’d noticed how disappointed she was when she’d finished telling him about seeing Tali at Freedom’s Progress. A tiny waver in her voice, her gaze had fallen to the floor. She’d been smiling, but not like…. Not like how she’d smiled when she first realized who Archangel was.

The instant she’d recognized him, he knew where he was supposed to be. He had lost his commander, lost his team, and was about to lose himself completely, until he saw her blowing through those mercs to get to him. Until he heard the happiness in her voice to see a familiar face. To see _his_ face.

Liara had been watching him while he thought, and she finally breached the silence by saying, “You know, the commander is a very attractive woman by human standards. You may not have forever. I wasn’t the only one on the SR-1 that was interested in her.”

Garrus exhaled sharply. “If you mean Kaidan, I think he’s gotten over any feelings he had for her.”

“Well, regardless, she ignored both of our attempts to gain her attention.”

“The commander is always focused on her mission. She doesn’t get the job done by courting her teammates.”

“Maybe so. Or maybe Shepard let us down easy because her eyes were on a certain sniper who had her so far up on a pedestal that he couldn’t tell that she was a woman, throughout the entire mission against Saren. In fact, maybe to her, _you’re_ the one who is always focused on the mission.”

Garrus gave her a skeptical look, but remained silent. After all, even now he was so focused on his work that he rarely had time to simply talk to Shepard. But he had to be. He couldn’t lose another Normandy to the Collectors. He wouldn’t lose Shepard again.

“All I’m saying is that you should bring it up. Tell her a story or something and see what she says. Have a little confidence, Garrus. I hope this isn’t how you act on the battlefield these days.”

“Not even close,” he said almost reflexively. But before he could say any more, the doors to Liara’s office slid open and Shepard strolled in with Grunt.

“Phew,” she sighed. “I really admire Gianna’s ability to threaten people with the actual law, instead of—y’know—fists… guns… Spectre status.” She grinned at Garrus.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, your _battle-charm_ is usually enough to convince people to see things your way before violence becomes necessary.”

“’Battle-charm’? Sounds better than ‘threatening’, I have to say. I think I’ll use that.”

“You know I’ve got your back, Shepard.”

“I can always count on you, Garrus.” She smiled again, holding his gaze. He cleared his throat and looked away.

“Shepard, I thought you brought me out here to kill things, not to fine some Asari smuggler,” Grunt reminded her. “I think she could have used a good headbutt.”

“Well, if things keep going the way they have been, there should be plenty of mercs to kill when we pick up the assassin and the justicar. There seem to be mercs everywhere these days. So much for the great _Archangel_ , huh?”

“Hey, now,” Garrus protested. “I’m still out there killing them off. I’m just with you now.”

Shepard nodded her head towards the door, “Ready to head out, then?”

“Whenever you are.”

“Liara, thanks again. I’ll make sure to hack those systems for you.”

“Thank you, Shepard. It’s been good seeing you again.”

“Likewise,” Shepard said, and then walked out with Grunt behind her. Garrus lingered.

“Listen, Liara,” he said hesitantly. “Thanks for the advice. I think I’m gonna take it.”

“You two already make quite a team, Garrus. Good luck.”

Garrus exited, quickly catching up to the other two. He’d already started planning what he could say the next time she visited the Main Battery. It had occurred to him back on the SR-1 that preparations for battle vastly differed on human and Turian ships, but he’d never had a reason to mention it. Now he did. Naturally, he couldn’t have prepared himself for the bluntness of her response, or for the time that he would spend wondering whether the “tie-breaker” was to be done as friends, or something more. But for the moment, he was fully occupied with two things: figuring out how to be as natural as possible when the time came to approach the topic, and how radiant her smile was whenever he was lucky enough to see it.


End file.
